


The Shimmering Lights

by Arisprite



Series: Christmastime Stories [4]
Category: xxxHoLic
Genre: Christmas, Gen, Manga Spoilers, kinda angsty but also fluffy, pre-shopkeeper
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-09 01:00:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5519636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arisprite/pseuds/Arisprite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Watanuki has no idea where Doumeki is dragging him, on a cold snowy night, but he says it's a Christmas surprise, and Watanuki is feeling more real the longer he spends with Doumeki, so he'd better follow.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Shimmering Lights

**Author's Note:**

> I am actually 100% sure that this part in the manga didn't take place around Christmas at all. Timey wimey, I guess.

Christmas really wasn’t a big deal, not now, not with everything going on. After all, Watanuki didn’t remember any family, or time before this point. He had no traditions, he wasn’t Christian, or even remotely religious. He’d seen too much for that. He had only Yuuko (but even she felt tenuous lately, with the holes in his memory and the unreliable reality), Doumeki (that jerk), Himawari (who was distant), sweet little Kohane-chan, and the various spirit creatures that hung around and seemed to exist to eat his food or dance around him.

Still, Watanuki walked from place to place (why?) and saw a wreath every once in awhile, heard a burst of carols in bad English, saw someone walking with a bag of gifts. He wondered why he was noticing so much? Christmas in Japan wasn’t like he’d heard of in other places. It was subdued, more intimate - avoiding the hustle and bustle. Perhaps that made it all the worse. 

Watanuki swallowed, and avoided the glimpse of a string of lights in a window, heading back to the shop with a knot in his chest. 

At the shop, in the cold (the weather looked like it was threatening snow fall again, but there hadn’t been a flake yet, just a crisp layer on the ground from the night before) stood Doumeki, leaning against the gate with his hands in his pockets. His cheeks and nose were ruddy, and Watanuki found his eyes drawn to this sign that he was so human as to sniffle if he stood in the cold too long, coming back to that rosy nose again and again. Did Watanuki’s nose get red now? Or was he not real enough? 

“What are you doing here?” he asked, lamely, with none of his old fight. He was just so tired. Doumeki shifted, pushing himself off the gate post, and looking right at him, in that way he did. 

“I have something for you,” he said, and Watanuki frowned.

“What the hell are you talking about?” he asked, feeling something warm up in his chest. He snapped, with a bit more vigor. “You think you can just wait here being creepy? What is it?”

Doumeki looked more satisfied already, and Watanuki didn’t know what to think about the fact that his snapping at him would make Doumeki happy, or that he could now read the expression. 

“It’s Christmas. It’s a secret.” 

A _Christmas_ secret? Watanuki’s interest was piqued, in spite of himself. “You’re the grandson of a Shinto priest!” Watanuki exclaimed, and Doumeki huffed, a burst of white fog in the cold. 

“Wanted to get you something.” 

Watanuki huffed dramatically himself, throwing his arms down to the side. “Fine! Lead on, then. Unless it’s too far away, and then just go an get it. It’s _way_ too cold out here to be just waiting, idiot.” 

“It’s not something I can go and get,” Doumeki said, cryptic as hell. Ugh. 

Watanuki waved his hand again, and then fell into step as Doumeki started off, heading not in the direction of the shop, but back towards town. 

“Okay, where are we going?” Watanuki said, walking a little faster. Doumeki hummed. 

Annoyed, Watanuki followed after the bastard, grumbling a little to himself. Doumeki led him through town again, where he’d just come from, while the sky above them turned dark. Watanuki had planned to make dinner for Yuuko and everyone. He was going to be late, and he’d have to change his menu entirely, to compensate for the less cook time. 

But, he was finding he didn’t mind too much at the moment. Some tight knot of stress was easing, even with just walking through the crowds, following closely after Doumeki. He was breathing easier than he had before, even though spirits didn’t bother him so much lately. Maybe it was the way that Doumeki glanced back every once in awhile, and really _looked_ at him, checking him over, as if to make sure that he was having a decent time, and was still there. No one else looked at him like that. Even Himawari’s eyes now had a habit of skating over his. 

Watanuki hurried closer again - damn Doumeki and his long legs, even though he was only a centimeter taller than him, if that! - and walked beside him. 

“What’s the big hurry?” he demanded. Doumeki didn’t reply, looking around at the shops, like he was looking for something. Then, he moved forward again, following a path through the masses, towards the bigger part of the city. Watanuki was surprised at how little distance it took before he could leave behind his usual paths to and fro, and come into the bustling city. 

“This way,” Doumeki said, gesturing and leading him through a open area, and onto a small path. On either side of them, there was a low wall leading down as the city morphed into a small park. The lights spread out into low lamps, and the snow began crunching underfoot as the path cleared. 

“You know it’s cold out here, right? Like, freezing? Why are you dragging me way out here, what could possibly be worth- ohh,” Watanuki cut himself off with a slow breath out. 

They came around a corner, and suddenly the ground dropped out from underneath them, leading down to a small clearing. There were Christmas lights put up here, glittering in lines all along the fence, the benches and lining the paths. It was enough to make the air illuminated, even as the sun went down. The snow sparkled with the white and colored light bulbs, and as if called up by Watanuki’s thoughts, a light dusting of flakes began to fall down, making the scene impossibly even _more_ heavenly. 

Why someone had thought to put up lights here, in this hidden away park with no visitors all day - judging by the lack of footsteps - Watanuki had no idea, but it was absolutely beautiful. 

Watanuki breathed out, and swung his head around to look at Doumeki, eyes still wide. 

“What-?” he tried to ask, not even sure what his question was. “Why?” 

Doumeki stepped up to stand beside him, shoving gloved hands in his pockets (they were the green gloves, the ones he’d made for him). He looked out over the view. 

“Thought it was nice. I wanted to show you…” Doumeki, for once in his life, seemed like he had more to say, more that he wasn’t able to get out. Watanuki watched as he lowered his eyes, and then turned to meet his own gaze, and that new ability to read the other boy told him that it was a difficulty to make eye contact, for some reason. “I wanted to show you something real. Something human, and beautiful. I thought it might… help.” 

Watanuki’s eyebrows went up, and his eyes widened, and he looked at Doumeki with the amazement that he’d given the glowing lights below them. Doumeki was illuminated enough that he could see his eyes, see the barely there flush of color, as Watanuki took in this gift from him. 

He’d wanted to give Watanuki something that might tether him to this world, something unique and all too human, left behind by a person who was reaching for something more important than the day to day. That hope was evident in the care that they had taken, laying out the bulbs and strings. It made Watanuki feel that hope as well, feel that ease he’d felt in his chest on the way over, magnify into a touched feeling that threatened to overwhelm him. He felt grounded, as if he was a helium balloon floating away, and Doumeki had grabbed his strings, and refused to let go. 

The lights, and Doumeki’s face blurred, and he breathed out a cloud of mist to hide the fact that he was tearing up. 

“Doumeki,” he choked, before he shook his head of the weird emotion, and looked back at the lights. “Can’t believe you just called it _nice_. This is beautiful. Thank you.” 

Doumeki let out a long, visible, breath, and nodded softly. “You’re welcome,” he said, quiet and still. Watanuki looked sideways at him, and then nodded himself. Doumeki was keeping hold on him, and incredibly, impossibly, Watanuki felt more real now than he had in a long time.


End file.
